sftp —
OpenSSH
secure file transfer
sftp |
[-46AaCfNpqrv]
[-B
buffer_size]
[-b
batchfile]
[-c
cipher]
[-D
sftp_server_command]
[-F
ssh_config]
[-i
identity_file]
[-J
destination]
[-l
limit]
[-o
ssh_option]
[-P
port]
[-R
num_requests]
[-S
program]
[-s
subsystem |
sftp_server]
[-X
sftp_option]
destination
|
sftp is a file transfer program, similar to
ftp(1), which performs all operations over an
encrypted
ssh(1) transport. It may also use many
features of ssh, such as public key authentication and compression.
The
destination may be specified either as
[
user@]host[
:path] or as a URI
in the form
sftp://[
user@]host[
:port][
/path].
If the
destination includes a
path and it is not a directory,
sftp will retrieve files automatically if a
non-interactive authentication method is used; otherwise it will do so after
successful interactive authentication.
If no
path is specified, or if the
path is a directory,
sftp will log in to the specified
host and enter interactive command mode,
changing to the remote directory if one was specified. An optional trailing
slash can be used to force the
path to be
interpreted as a directory.
Since the destination formats use colon characters to delimit host names from
path names or port numbers, IPv6 addresses must be enclosed in square brackets
to avoid ambiguity.
The options are as follows:
- -4
- Forces sftp to use IPv4
addresses only.
- -6
- Forces sftp to use IPv6
addresses only.
- -A
- Allows forwarding of
ssh-agent(1) to the remote system. The
default is not to forward an authentication agent.
- -a
- Attempt to continue interrupted transfers rather than
overwriting existing partial or complete copies of files. If the partial
contents differ from those being transferred, then the resultant file is
likely to be corrupt.
-
-B
buffer_size
- Specify the size of the buffer that
sftp uses when transferring files. Larger
buffers require fewer round trips at the cost of higher memory
consumption. The default is 32768 bytes.
-
-b
batchfile
- Batch mode reads a series of commands from an input
batchfile instead of
stdin. Since it lacks user interaction, it
should be used in conjunction with non-interactive authentication to
obviate the need to enter a password at connection time (see
sshd(8) and
ssh-keygen(1) for details).
A batchfile of ‘-’ may be
used to indicate standard input. sftp will
abort if any of the following commands fail:
get, put,
reget, reput,
rename, ln,
rm, mkdir,
chdir, ls,
lchdir, copy,
cp, chmod,
chown, chgrp,
lpwd, df,
symlink, and
lmkdir.
Termination on error can be suppressed on a command by command basis by
prefixing the command with a ‘-’ character (for example,
-rm /tmp/blah*). Echo of the command may be
suppressed by prefixing the command with a ‘@’ character.
These two prefixes may be combined in any order, for example
-@ls /bsd.
- -C
- Enables compression (via ssh's
-C flag).
-
-c
cipher
- Selects the cipher to use for encrypting the data
transfers. This option is directly passed to
ssh(1).
-
-D
sftp_server_command
- Connect directly to a local sftp server (rather than via
ssh(1)). A command and arguments may be
specified, for example “/path/sftp-server -el debug3”. This
option may be useful in debugging the client and server.
-
-F
ssh_config
- Specifies an alternative per-user configuration file for
ssh(1). This option is directly passed to
ssh(1).
- -f
- Requests that files be flushed to disk immediately after
transfer. When uploading files, this feature is only enabled if the server
implements the "[email protected]" extension.
-
-i
identity_file
- Selects the file from which the identity (private key) for
public key authentication is read. This option is directly passed to
ssh(1).
-
-J
destination
- Connect to the target host by first making an
sftp connection to the jump host described by
destination and then establishing a TCP
forwarding to the ultimate destination from there. Multiple jump hops may
be specified separated by comma characters. This is a shortcut to specify
a ProxyJump configuration directive. This
option is directly passed to ssh(1).
-
-l
limit
- Limits the used bandwidth, specified in Kbit/s.
- -N
- Disables quiet mode, e.g. to override the implicit quiet
mode set by the -b flag.
-
-o
ssh_option
- Can be used to pass options to
ssh in the format used in
ssh_config(5). This is useful for specifying
options for which there is no separate sftp
command-line flag. For example, to specify an alternate port use:
sftp -oPort=24. For full details of the
options listed below, and their possible values, see
ssh_config(5).
-
-P
port
- Specifies the port to connect to on the remote host.
- -p
- Preserves modification times, access times, and modes from
the original files transferred.
- -q
- Quiet mode: disables the progress meter as well as warning
and diagnostic messages from ssh(1).
-
-R
num_requests
- Specify how many requests may be outstanding at any one
time. Increasing this may slightly improve file transfer speed but will
increase memory usage. The default is 64 outstanding requests.
- -r
- Recursively copy entire directories when uploading and
downloading. Note that sftp does not follow
symbolic links encountered in the tree traversal.
-
-S
program
- Name of the program to use
for the encrypted connection. The program must understand
ssh(1) options.
-
-s
subsystem |
sftp_server
- Specifies the SSH2 subsystem or the path for an sftp server
on the remote host. A path is useful when the remote
sshd(8) does not have an sftp subsystem
configured.
- -v
- Raise logging level. This option is also passed to
ssh.
-
-X
sftp_option
- Specify an option that controls aspects of SFTP protocol
behaviour. The valid options are:
-
nrequests=value
- Controls how many concurrent SFTP read or write
requests may be in progress at any point in time during a download or
upload. By default 64 requests may be active concurrently.
-
buffer=value
- Controls the maximum buffer size for a single SFTP
read/write operation used during download or upload. By default a 32KB
buffer is used.
Once in interactive mode,
sftp understands a set of
commands similar to those of
ftp(1). Commands are
case insensitive. Pathnames that contain spaces must be enclosed in quotes.
Any special characters contained within pathnames that are recognized by
glob(3) must be escaped with backslashes
(‘\’).
- bye
- Quit sftp.
-
cd
[path]
- Change remote directory to
path. If
path is not specified, then change
directory to the one the session started in.
-
chgrp
[-h]
grp
path
- Change group of file path
to grp.
path may contain
glob(7) characters and may match multiple
files. grp must be a numeric GID.
If the -h flag is specified, then symlinks will
not be followed. Note that this is only supported by servers that
implement the "[email protected]" extension.
-
chmod
[-h]
mode
path
- Change permissions of file
path to
mode.
path may contain
glob(7) characters and may match multiple
files.
If the -h flag is specified, then symlinks will
not be followed. Note that this is only supported by servers that
implement the "[email protected]" extension.
-
chown
[-h]
own
path
- Change owner of file path
to own.
path may contain
glob(7) characters and may match multiple
files. own must be a numeric UID.
If the -h flag is specified, then symlinks will
not be followed. Note that this is only supported by servers that
implement the "[email protected]" extension.
-
copy
oldpath
newpath
- Copy remote file from
oldpath to
newpath.
Note that this is only supported by servers that implement the
"copy-data" extension.
-
cp
oldpath
newpath
- Alias to copy command.
-
df
[-hi]
[path]
- Display usage information for the filesystem holding the
current directory (or path if specified).
If the -h flag is specified, the capacity
information will be displayed using "human-readable" suffixes.
The -i flag requests display of inode
information in addition to capacity information. This command is only
supported on servers that implement the
“[email protected]” extension.
- exit
- Quit sftp.
-
get
[-afpR]
remote-path
[local-path]
- Retrieve the remote-path
and store it on the local machine. If the local path name is not
specified, it is given the same name it has on the remote machine.
remote-path may contain
glob(7) characters and may match multiple
files. If it does and local-path is
specified, then local-path must specify a
directory.
If the -a flag is specified, then attempt to
resume partial transfers of existing files. Note that resumption assumes
that any partial copy of the local file matches the remote copy. If the
remote file contents differ from the partial local copy then the resultant
file is likely to be corrupt.
If the -f flag is specified, then
fsync(2) will be called after the file
transfer has completed to flush the file to disk.
If the -p flag is specified, then full file
permissions and access times are copied too.
If the -R flag is specified then directories
will be copied recursively. Note that sftp
does not follow symbolic links when performing recursive transfers.
- help
- Display help text.
-
lcd
[path]
- Change local directory to
path. If
path is not specified, then change
directory to the local user's home directory.
-
lls
[ls-options
[path]]
- Display local directory listing of either
path or current directory if
path is not specified.
ls-options may contain any flags
supported by the local system's ls(1)
command. path may contain
glob(7) characters and may match multiple
files.
-
lmkdir
path
- Create local directory specified by
path.
-
ln
[-s]
oldpath
newpath
- Create a link from oldpath
to newpath. If the
-s flag is specified the created link is a
symbolic link, otherwise it is a hard link.
- lpwd
- Print local working directory.
-
ls
[-1afhlnrSt]
[path]
- Display a remote directory listing of either
path or the current directory if
path is not specified.
path may contain
glob(7) characters and may match multiple
files.
The following flags are recognized and alter the behaviour of
ls accordingly:
- -1
- Produce single columnar output.
- -a
- List files beginning with a dot
(‘.’).
- -f
- Do not sort the listing. The default sort order is
lexicographical.
- -h
- When used with a long format option, use unit suffixes:
Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte, Petabyte, and Exabyte in
order to reduce the number of digits to four or fewer using powers of
2 for sizes (K=1024, M=1048576, etc.).
- -l
- Display additional details including permissions and
ownership information.
- -n
- Produce a long listing with user and group information
presented numerically.
- -r
- Reverse the sort order of the listing.
- -S
- Sort the listing by file size.
- -t
- Sort the listing by last modification time.
-
lumask
umask
- Set local umask to
umask.
-
mkdir
path
- Create remote directory specified by
path.
- progress
- Toggle display of progress meter.
-
put
[-afpR]
local-path
[remote-path]
- Upload local-path and
store it on the remote machine. If the remote path name is not specified,
it is given the same name it has on the local machine.
local-path may contain
glob(7) characters and may match multiple
files. If it does and remote-path is
specified, then remote-path must specify
a directory.
If the -a flag is specified, then attempt to
resume partial transfers of existing files. Note that resumption assumes
that any partial copy of the remote file matches the local copy. If the
local file contents differ from the remote local copy then the resultant
file is likely to be corrupt.
If the -f flag is specified, then a request
will be sent to the server to call fsync(2)
after the file has been transferred. Note that this is only supported by
servers that implement the "[email protected]" extension.
If the -p flag is specified, then full file
permissions and access times are copied too.
If the -R flag is specified then directories
will be copied recursively. Note that sftp
does not follow symbolic links when performing recursive transfers.
- pwd
- Display remote working directory.
- quit
- Quit sftp.
-
reget
[-fpR]
remote-path
[local-path]
- Resume download of
remote-path. Equivalent to
get with the -a
flag set.
-
reput
[-fpR]
local-path
[remote-path]
- Resume upload of
local-path. Equivalent to
put with the -a
flag set.
-
rename
oldpath newpath
- Rename remote file from
oldpath to
newpath.
-
rm
path
- Delete remote file specified by
path.
-
rmdir
path
- Remove remote directory specified by
path.
-
symlink
oldpath newpath
- Create a symbolic link from
oldpath to
newpath.
- version
- Display the sftp protocol
version.
-
!command
- Execute command in local
shell.
- !
- Escape to local shell.
- ?
- Synonym for help.
ftp(1),
ls(1),
scp(1),
ssh(1),
ssh-add(1),
ssh-keygen(1),
ssh_config(5),
glob(7),
sftp-server(8),
sshd(8)
T. Ylonen and
S. Lehtinen, SSH File Transfer
Protocol, draft-ietf-secsh-filexfer-00.txt,
January 2001, work in progress
material.